Johan Reinhard - Ice Maiden: Inca Mummies, Mountain Gods, and Sacred Sites in the Andes

CHAPTER ONE
Discovery on Ampato

CHAPTER TWO
Return of the Maiden

CHAPTER THREE
Extreme Archaeology

CHAPTER FOUR
Mummies and Media

CHAPTER FIVE
The Mountains of Power

CHAPTER SIX
Juanitas Journey

CHAPTER SEVEN
Peaks, Storms, and Sarita

CHAPTER EIGHT
Earth Mother, Mountain Father

CHAPTER NINE
Mistis Children

CHAPTER TEN
Quehuars Headless Mummy

CHAPTER ELEVEN
Mountain of Dreams

CHAPTER TWELVE
Past Perfect

A man descends a glacier after making offerings to the mountain gods during the festival of Qoyllur Riti.

Quechua villagers reenact an Inca ceremony involving the simulated sacrifice of a girl.

T HE PRIEST RAISED THE WOODEN CUP TOWARD THE SUN AND asked for its blessing. The assembled group lowered their heads and placed their hands to their lips, making kissing sounds as they opened them and stretched their arms out to the sun. Gesturing toward the snow-capped peaks surrounding him, the priest invoked them to accept the offerings that lay nearby. Then, while others sang solemn songs and played flutes and drums, he tilted the cup so that the liquid in it poured slowly onto the ground. Turning to the young girl by his side, he told her it was time for her to drink from an identical cup. She lifted it to her lips in hands that had begun to freeze in the cold wind. Exhausted and unaccustomed to the bittersweet taste of maize beer, she had difficulty swallowing it.

The girl wore a finely woven dress of alpaca wool. It was held by an elaborately woven belt around her waist and two silver pins at her shoulders. A shawl with bright red and white stripes was draped around her shoulders and held in place by another pin. She wore a light and dark brown colored head cloth over her black hair.

She felt overwhelmed as her eyes took in the panorama before her. She stood on the summit of Ampato, one of the highest peaks in Peru, looking down on a vast field of ice and beyond it to a sea of mountains that gradually disappeared in the distance. Yet until yesterday she had never touched snow.

Her journey had begun months ago when she was sent to Cuzco, capital of the Inca Empire. She was a virgin without blemish and had been especially selected by the Incas to participate in one of their most important ceremonies. She had been feted during days of rituals that included dancing and drinking, and then set off on her pilgrimage to the sacred mountain. Priests and their assistants led the way with llamas carrying supplies of food and ritual offerings. As the ritual procession passed through the villages along the way, people averted their eyes and prostrated themselves on the ground.

After days of travel, the procession reached Kallimarca, the last Inca settlement on their way to Ampato. Built on a ridge above the Colca Canyon, Kallimarca had a small plaza with a ceremonial platform built adjacent to it. The girl was led three times around the platform; then she climbed up its stairs to the top. There the priests first made offerings to the Inca deities, especially Inti, the sun. Then they invoked Ampato and the volcano Hualca Hualca, visible in the distance, along with other sacred peaks in the region.

Once the offerings at Kallimarca had been completed, the procession continued up a river valley. Gradually the pilgrims ascended to a pass where they were met with their first view of Ampato in all its grandeur. They wound their way to the tambo , a group of buildings the Incas had built as a way station at the foot of Ampato at 16,000 feet.

From here, only the priests and their assistants continued on with the girl as they climbed up to a small plateau at 19,200 feet, where they spent the night in tents. The next day the little band followed a trail that zigzagged up a steep slope, bordered by a massive wall of ice. The group was relieved to reach their goal for the day, a hillock on the craters rim that was covered with grass matting. As soon as she set foot on it, the maiden saw the highest point of the summit. The group spent another night in tents, insulated from the ice by the matting. The next morning the girl ate a simple meal of vegetables.